


Reconciliation

by Magnetism_bind



Category: Black Sails
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Complicated Emotions, Cunnilingus, F/F, Forgiveness, Kissing, Reconciliation, Reconciliation Sex, Sex, Wooing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-05
Updated: 2019-08-05
Packaged: 2020-06-28 14:47:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19814506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Magnetism_bind/pseuds/Magnetism_bind
Summary: Eleanor tries to win Max back. Max isn't sure she wants to be won.





	Reconciliation

**Author's Note:**

> Written for BS Rarepair Week 2019

Max sends back the fruit, the pressed lavender, the silk, all the trinkets Eleanor thinks she can buy her forgiveness with. She doesn’t want to be bought, doesn’t want to give her forgiveness for something brought in on a ship. She wanted to leave with Eleanor, she wanted to run away together, she wanted to be free.

She can still have one of those things at least.

But now that she has started to rebuild something for herself, here is Eleanor, still trying to woo her back.

Part of Max wants to be wooed. She can’t deny that. There is some bit of her that’s flattered that Eleanor would do this. There is also the part of her that won’t let herself forget the past. Even if she still loves Eleanor. That’s the hardest part. She will always love Eleanor.

It takes time for her to understand that the choices Eleanor has made weren’t always what Eleanor wants. That the things Eleanor wants, aren’t always what her heart desires, and that the heart like all things, can be torn between two impossible decisions. That Eleanor is a pirate in every true sense of the word, she wants respect, she wants to run her business without men trying to halt her every move, and she wants her freedom.

If only her idea of freedom and Max’s had been the same.

~*~

The next time Eleanor looks her way across the street Max gives her a slight nod. It would not be an encouragement to a less determined woman, but Eleanor Guthrie is not such a woman.

She doesn’t send gifts this time, Eleanor comes herself.

When the girl tells Max that Ms Guthrie is waiting to see her, Max hesitates. This is a road she has taken before, a road that she had not diverged from easily. She has missed Eleanor, it’s true, but she’s not sure it’s wise to let her too close again. She’s not sure her heart can take it.

But she lets the girl send Eleanor up. She remains at the desk, ostensibly writing a letter, but the last line or so have been merely ink on paper. The words don’t make sense.

“I wasn’t sure you’d want to see me.” Eleanor leans against the closed door, gazing at her.

 _Of course I want to see you, why wouldn’t I want to see you_ , these are all words that could exist upon Max’s tongue. _What brings you to my door now?_ Instead she sets down her pen and waits a moment.

“I wasn’t sure either.” She says at last. There. She can admit that much.

“I’ve missed you." 

Max regards her, looking at her intently. "I believe that is true." 

"I didn’t want to.” Eleanor says, “I wanted to be able to move past this.”

“You are not alone in that wish.” Max murmurs. If she could tear out the part of her heart that still clings to Eleanor, she would have long ago. Buried it beneath a mountain of stone that would crush it, that would have been preferable too. Instead she’s left with this inconsolable longing within her, the loneliness of desire for a woman who betrayed her, and love, still a wealth of love that wracks her heart with the strength of it. She shouldn’t be allowed to love like this. Not now, not after everything that has happened between them.

To her surprise her words bring a slight smile to Eleanor’s mouth. The sight of that alone sends a sharp mingled point of desire and loss through Max’s stomach. 

“I suspected that might be the case.” She was still looking at Max with those hollow eyes. “I wondered if we weren’t alone in another wish as well.”

“And what wish might that be?” Max’s words are light, but her heart is beating like a bird trapped within a cage, frantic to escape. 

“To kiss you again.” Eleanor remains where she is, waiting. 

And Max knows that for her to cross the room to Eleanor, she will have to speak. To tell Eleanor that all is well and forgiven. But she doesn’t know if that’s true or not. She doesn’t know if she can forgive this woman she has loved beyond everything.

“Take your hair down.” She has dreamed of Eleanor since they were apart and in her dreams Eleanor’s hair is always down. She is the woman she lets herself be in Max’s bed, wild and free and bold.

Slowly Eleanor reaches for the pins, letting it fall to her shoulders. 

Just as slowly Max crosses the room to her, her limbs steady beneath her, in spite of the trembling of her heart. She stands there in front of Eleanor, simply looking at her. She sees a woman she has known fully, and yet still does not know. The heart beating inside of Eleanor’s chest is a stranger to her. 

“Anne told me what you did. On the beach that night.”

“It wasn’t…” Eleanor wets her lips. “She did the deed.”

“But you helped.” It was thanks to the two of them, that she stood where she was now. She could not forget that.

“I wanted…I couldn’t…” Eleanor’s voice breaks for a half moment and then she catches herself. “I tried to understand why you had gone with him…but all I wanted to do was know that you were safe.”

“And now that I am safe?” Max tilts her head, still looking at her. “What do you want now?”

“To kiss you.” Eleanor breathes. “More than anything, that’s what I want, Max.”

Eleanor’s breath catches as Max raises a hand to touch her cheek. 

“What are you waiting for?”

“I need to know if you still want me to kiss you.” Eleanor says simply. “I need to know that.”

Softly Max brushes her knuckles along the curve of Eleanor’s jaw. “I still want you to kiss me.”

Eleanor drew in a sharp breath. “Oh Max.”

She leans in, clasping Max’s face. The first brush of her lips is tentative for a heartbeat, and then Eleanor sighs and her teeth catches Max’s lip, and the rush of desire returns in full force.

Her hands reach for Eleanor’s skirts as they continue kissing their way across the room. There are no questions, no reassurances, only hands upon clothes, shedding them frenziedly across the floor.

Max has dreamed of this but even her dreams aren’t as good this. Eleanor standing nude before her, the sunlight streaming over her golden hair. In Max’s dreams Eleanor is always slightly out of reach.

Max stops and stares at her.

“Max?’

“I….” Max licks her lips. “I tried not to love you.” The confession slips from her before she can catch it.

There’s pain in Eleanor’s eyes, but then she looks at Max, her eyes widening a little. “Does that mean you still love me?”

Max laughs. “Yes. I suppose it does.”

Eleanor surges towards her, kissing her fully. “I haven’t stopped loving you.” She kisses Max’s breasts and then reaches for her bodice, kissing Max’s breasts. “I have always loved you.” She takes one of Max’s nipples in her mouth, kissing it reverently.

She falls to her knees, kissing Max’s curls there. “I will always love you.”

The first press of her mouth to Max’s cunt makes Max gasp. Eleanor’s hands on her thighs, drawing her closer. Her tongue descends upon Max with a hunger that defines reason. Max is panting, her hands in Eleanor’s hair as Eleanor slips her tongue between her folds.

Eleanor brings to the brink again and again, and whenever Max thinks she’s finally going to come, Eleanor draws off and kisses her thighs and belly and breasts. It isn’t until Max shudders “Eleanor, _please_ ,” that Eleanor presses her tongue back to her cunt and fucks her as Max loves her to do.

She draws Eleanor over to the bed and pushes her down. Now she has Eleanor where she wants her. Max has missed this, missed Eleanor. She’s never been intimate with another person as she was with Eleanor. Eleanor knows her. Eleanor loved her. And now, she looks up at Max with desire in her eyes, her cheeks flushed with desire, her hair tangled, breasts heaving.

Is it possible she’s speaking the truth or has she just missed this? Missed being in Max’s bed? Would that be enough to cause that look in her eyes?

She straddles Eleanor, cupping her breasts. She doesn’t want to think about anyone else in the world right now. She only wants Eleanor. In this moment, it’s enough.

She rides Eleanor to a slow frantic climax, watching her face the whole time, listening to Eleanor murmur her name to the air as she comes.

~*~

Max looks over at Eleanor sleeping beside her. Eleanor looks so peaceful. Slowly Max reaches out and touches her cheek. Eleanor stirs faintly, turning her face towards Max in her sleep.

Max sits up and reaches for her robe. She pours herself a cup of wine and walks to her balcony. Afternoon has given way to evening. There are lanterns and lamps lit all over Nassau town. Max takes a sip of wine and leans against the post. She loves this time of night, the smell of the sea rolling in, the way the windows shine in the dark.

She looks back over her shoulder at Eleanor. If she wants, she can pretend it’s the same as it always was. But she doesn’t want that. The only way to move forward is to do exactly that. So perhaps it is not a return to the same road. Perhaps it is a new path altogether. Max wants that. She wants to forge that path with Eleanor.

She drinks a toast to that, to the night, before going back to the bed. She lays down beside her and takes her hand. Eleanor immediately curls inward towards her, hand clasping Max’s in return.

“I will always love you too.” She whispers.

~*~

It takes her a little while to tell Eleanor that she’s forgiven her. It takes a while for her heart to realize it’s true. But that day comes all the same. And when Eleanor cups her face in her hands and kisses her, Max knows they are on the same path at last together.


End file.
